What to wear on ship during Northern Lights cruise to Norway

[sweet-t413]

Wondering what clothes to pack for just walking around the ship on sailing days for a WINTER cruise to Norway? Jeans & a sweatshirt? Full winter clothes? How bundled up do you get during the day?

[robthens]

Dress in layers.  Suggest you take light weight rain coat, hat, scarf & gloves.  Jeans & sweatshirt are perfect.  Fleece or down jacket.

You didn't mention the cruise line.  We went on a Hurtigruten  ferry.  It was extremely casual.

Not to disappoint, I would have low expectations on seeing the northern lights.  

[hallasm]

Temperaturen down to -30˚C (-20˚F) - windy on open deck at night. Assuming you want to see the Northern Lights - then you’ll spend long time at the upper deck of the ship.

 

Best way to dress for the cold is dress in layers. Use many thin, warm layers rather than a few thick layers. It will insulate better and allow you to strip off layers if the temperature rise. Also remember to wear more than one layer on your legs. 

Use water proof and insulated boots and wear  warm socks. Wool is best, alternatively good synthetic fleece socks. You can also layer socks.

Use a good quality coat, parka, or jacket. For the coat, the thicker the better,. Can either be synthetic jacket, a wool pea coat, or a down jacket. 

A warm hat is a must as well as  comfortable, warm gloves or mittens. Fingers and hands are very vulnerable to the cold, so keep them covered.

[navybankerteacher]

Jeans are not a good idea - thin and tightly woven, they are no good in cold weather.  Consider thermal underwear and wool or even corduroy trousers.

[robthens]

On 11/7/2022 at 8:27 AM, navybankerteacher said:

Jeans are not a good idea - thin and tightly woven, they are no good in cold weather.  Consider thermal underwear and wool or even corduroy trousers.

We wore Jeans and they were fine.  I wore "cuddle duds'' & DH brought Sitka liners when it was cooler.

DH also brought waterproof/windproof pants (walmart sells them)  only wore them once.

[bonsai3s]

Just did a "transarctic" last month. My beautiful wife was out every night (with many other passengers), on the helipad,  hoping for a glimpse of the Northern Lights.

 

It was cold

..very cold. To help ease the shivers,  she used the blanket provided by the ship. Worked really well.

 

* Regrettably, no sighting of the northern lights.

[CruisingWalter]

On 11/6/2022 at 9:59 PM, sweet-t413 said:

Wondering what clothes to pack for just walking around the ship on sailing days for a WINTER cruise to Norway? Jeans & a sweatshirt? Full winter clothes? How bundled up do you get during the day?

 

When we cruised to Alaska the best purchase we made was a 3 in 1 jacket from LL Bean. In fact we still have them and that cruise was in 2009. It has an inner warm liner, and an outer windbreaker/rain jacket. You can wear the two pieces individually or together for maximum warmth. That was the only jacket we took with us and it got as cold at 30 degrees in Copper River while up to 71 in Fairbanks. The jacket was perfect.

 

And ditto to the layers, that is a MUST for any colder climate vacation. Especially as the sun comes out you start to get warmer, you can peel the layers back. 

 

If your hands or feet are prone to getting cold, those chemical warmers really do the trick, they kept my feel and fingers warm on those two really cold days we had.